Traffic recording system for automatic telephone exchanges



HANGES Aug. 17, 1954 G. DEAKIN RECORDING SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATIC TELEPHONEEXC TRAFFIC Filed Nov. 19, 1949 LIGHT PROOF How/M5 3 7 C/RCU/ 7' UNDEROBSERVA TIOIY DISTEIBUTI/VG FRAME TERMINAL DISTRIBUTING FPA/IE HRH/NHLr0 8/? RELAY Pl/L-SE RESPONS/VE C/RCUI T AMI? DISTRIBUTING FRAMETERMINAL -i- 48VOLTJ INVENTOR GERALD DEA/(UV lll'lllll ATTORNEY PatentedAug. 17, 1954 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE TRAFFIC RECORDING SYSTEM FORAUTO- MATIC TELEPHONE EXCHANGES Gerald Deakin, New York, N. Y., assignorto Intel-national Standard Electric Corporation, New York, N. Y., acorporation of Delaware Application November 19, 1949, Serial No.128,315 11 Claims. (Cl. 179-9) This invention relates to an arrangementfor inductive voltage is amplified to a value sufllcient automaticallycounting and recording informato directly control a call register. tionindicative of the traflic conditions existing in According to anotherfeature of this invention an automatic telephone exchange. More para gasdischarge device is connected to each of ticularly the inventionpertains to means for obthe individual release relays of the connectingtaining a record of the number of calls estabcircuit of an automaticexchange, and a recordlished through an automatic telephone exchange.ing of the r l s of ch of h r l ys is m It is highly desirable intelephone systems of under control of the discharge tubes. This is todayto be able to obtain an accurate daily figpreferably accomplished by 160 ding the fl ure as to the number of calls handled by the 10 dischargeof the gas tubes on a register or on a switching equipment at anyparticular telephone photo-Sensitive recording mediumexchange oilice.Such a daily figure i useful The above-mentioned and other features andover a period of time for determining or Checking objects of thisinvention and the manner of atthe capacity of a particular ofiice tohandle the taining them will become more apparent and volume of trafiicencountered and for purposes the invention itself will be bestunderstood by of aiding in the determination of toll charges forreference '60 e following descriptions 0 subscribers served by theexchan e, F r many bodiments of the invention taken in conjunctionpurposes it is necessary to obtain a measurement W h th fl mp ydrawings, wherein:

of traffic which is indicative of a much smaller Figure 1 is a schematicrepresentation of the integer of time. For instance, the maximum derdinsys m ill r n a first mbodiment mand on the switching equipment underordiof the invention;

nary circumstances would occur during a rela- Figure 2 is a schematicrepresentation of the tivel man p rt of th d thi b i referred to systemillustrating a second embodiment of the as the busy hour traflic period.In order to invention;

analyze the distribution of trailic during this busy Figure 3 is aschematic representation of a period the recording equipment must beinstanmodification of the embodiment shown in Figure taneous in itsaction and either readily accessible 1, and

for visual observance or inherently capable of Fig. 4 is a detailed Viewof a section of a reautomatically associating a time element with crding i m o 3- the traflic count. With reference to the drawings, thereis shown Recording arrangements of this general class schematically, aportion of the automatic switchwhich are known usually requireadditional reg system fOImiIIg the u j matter of y lays and otherrelatively expensive components 3- Patent N 2,484,030. It mu b 11 1 atthe central exchange besides the actual device stood that the exchangecircuitry shown is by recorders may be used with the selectorequipcording" arrangement may be fid in Conjuncment at the centralexchange but this necessition with any similar automatic orsemi-autotates modifications in the selector itself and also math? e p eEXChahgerequires other components not usually required In Figure 1 thereis shown a BR relay I of the in the operation of the exchange. systemdescribed in the abovementioned patent In accordance with this inventionthere is prowhich operates when a calling line is picked up vided anovel system for iecordmg trafiic disby the n st lin under through thesct on of tribution in an automatic telephone exchange the selectorswitch brushes. The BR relay is which possesses the desired featuresmentioned taken for purposes of illustration only and it above and whichoffers a substantial saving in will become readily apparent to oneskilled in both the installation and the maintenance costs the art thatany similar relay might be chosen over those previously known. Thesystem is depending upon the trafiic distribution to be readilyadaptable to existing exchange equipobserved.

ment and affords a great deal of flexibility in its The circuit of theBR relay 5 is connected applications to trafiic distribution problems.through distributing frame terminal of the ex- Briefly the recordingsystem of this invention change to a neon tube 2 enclosed in alightproof utilizes the relatively high voltage generated housing asindicated at 3 in Figure 1. A pluwhen the inductive circuit of a releaserelay is rality of similar tubes are mounted within the broken at theend of a particular call or conhousing 3 and are connected similarly toother nection to provide the energy necessary to percircuits of theexchange. A light cell 4 is mountform the actual recording operation. edwithin the lightproof housing adjacent the According to one feature ofthis invention this bank of neon tubes and is connected to a light whichmay be mounted within the housing or at any suitable location remotetherefrom. The output of the light cell amplifier is in turn utilized todrive a standard call register 6 which may be placed at any location inthe exchange that provides ready accessibility for visual observance.

It may be seen that upon opening of the ground via the selector brush,the circuit for relay I will be broken and will cause the release of therelay l. The inductive kick voltage generated by this relay will appearacross the neon tube 2. The neon tube will fire momentarily producing alight flash which will energize the light cell 4. The energy thusproduced by the light cell 4 is then amplified by the amplifier 5 to asufficient value to actuate the call register 6.

A plurality of similar; lightproof cells may be provided, eachcomprising a similar bank of neon tubes and a light cell associated witheach of the banks.

The output of the individual light cells may be fed through a commonamplifier to a single call register or may be further subdivided byproviding a plurality of such registers for each of the predeterminedgroup of such cells.

The neon tubes oi the arrangement described above produce an additionaldesirable efiect in that they act as spark quenchers for the inductivecircuits of the relays involved.

Inasmuch as it is possible that two switches may release simultaneouslyand thereby give only a single indication, the number of neon tubesconstituting a single bank will depend on the number of calls handledper unit of time during the busiest period of the day as well as on theaccuracy desired. If register 6 has an operating time of .050 sec. itwill be able to handle approximately 20 releases a second. If the bankconsisted of, for example, 1000 tubes, only approximately one-tenth ofthe number of switches connected thereto would normally be operated atany one time. If the average call is estimated to last three minutes,somewhat less than 35 switches would release per minute and the numberof times two or more switches would release simultaneously would occurso seldom as to be negligible for all practical purposes.

In Figure 2 there is illustrated a second embodiment of the inventionwhich provides for the direct recording of the neon flashes on amulti-channeled film or similar sensitive paper.

The system of Figure 2 comprises a plurality of neon tubes 1 mountedwithin a lightproof housing 3 in a manner similar to that shown in theembodiment of Figure 1. Each of the neon tubes is under the control of asingle release relay in the telephone exchange as shown for a singletube in Figure 2 at 8. The lightproof housing in the arrangement ofFigure 2 is subdivided into a plurality of lightprooi chambers 9 each ofwhich contains a similar bank of neon tubes as that shown in Figure 2.Each of the chambers 9 is provided with a lens system H] which iscapable of receiving light from any of the tubes in a particular bank.

Adjacent the lens systems there is provided a multichannel film H whichis mounted within a common chamber i2 and is positioned to receive lightfocused thereon by all the lens systems of the respective chambers 9,each of the channels registering flashes from a single chamber of theplurality. The film H is carried in the chamber [2 of the compositehousing on a roller mem ber IS. The film is fed from roller [3 overpulley cell amplifier member l4 past the respective lenses of eachchamber 9 to pulley l5 and on to feed sprocket l6 which is operative bymotive means (not shown) to engage the film and advance it at a constantrate of speed. The film is then fed over pulley member H on to a re-windroller I8 which is continually tensioned to take up any slack in thefilm.

It may be seen that the arrangement as above described is operative todirectly record the neon flashes on the constantly advancing film mediumthrough the action of the lens systems provided.

The film or sensitive paper may be provided with timing indications ormarks 19, more clearly shown in Fig. 4, which correspond to the rate ofadvance of the constantly moving ieed sprocket It so as to provide aready reference with respect to the recorded flashes during anyparticular time that the mechanism is running. Through the action of theindividual lens systems, the light flashes from the neon tubes willappear on the sensitized paper as finely defined lines, one linecorresponding to a single firing of a neon tube as illustrated at 20 inFigure 2. To obtain the traflic pattern during any particular period itis merely necessary to count the number of lines paper between thedesired time indication limits l9 carried thereon.

A section of the film or sensitive paper II is illustrated in Fig. e inorder to show the timing indications l9 which serve to indicate the timeof the day in which the flash marks appearing thereon were made. Thetiming indications will, of course, have to be made proportional inaccordance with the speed at which the film is advanced.

It must be understood that any similar arrangement or feed mechanism forthe sensitized paper could be provided, the arrangement thus dislclosedbeing used for purposes of illustration on y.

In the modification illustrated in Figure 3 of the drawings, theoperation is such that the back electro-motive force generated by therelease of a relay such as the BR relay I of Fig. 1 is amplified anddirectly utilized to actuate the call register.

As shown in Figure 3, the inductive kick voltage generated upon releaseof a particular relay, is fed from the distributing frame terminal, inthe same manner as shown in Figure l, to a pulse responsive circuit 2!.The function of the pulse responsive circuit is to suitably shape andpass only the peak value of the voltage generated by the release ofrelay I. This peaked voltage is then fed to a common amplifier 22,amplified to a value sufiicient to actuate the call register 6, and thenapplied to the control circuit of the register.

While I have described above the principles of my invention inconnection with specific apparatus, it is to be clearly understood thatthis description is made only by way of example and not as a limitationto the scope of my invention.

What I claim is: i

1. In an automatic telephone exchange, a traffic recording systemcomprising a plurality of inductive control circuits each beingenergized during the establishment of respective calls through saidexchange and adapted to deliver an inductive kick upon deenergizationthereof, pulse responsive means adapted to radiate energy upon receiptof an inductive kick, circuit means con- 20 appearing on the sensitizedated energy, in energy-receiving relation with said pulse-responsivemeans for automatically recording the release of said inductive controlcircuits.

2. A trafiic recording system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said pulseresponsive means comprises a plurality of electron discharge devices, adiiferent one of said devices associated with each of said controlcircuits.

3. In an automatic telephone exchange havrelays, and recording meansresponsive to discharged energy, in dischargeenergy-receiving relationwith said discharge devices for recording the incidence of operation ofsaid relays.

4. A traflic recording system as claimed in energy upon receipt meansconnecting said inductive control circuits to said pulse responsivemeans, to transfer an inductive kick to said pulse responsive means saidpulse responsive means being operative to be energized solely by theinduced voltage generated in said inductive control circuits whenrespective control relays are released and radiation-responsive meanscontrolled by energy radiated by said pulse responsive means inenergy-receiving relation with said pulse responsive means and forrecording the release of said control relays.

6. In an automatic telephone exchange having switching circuitsoperative to establish connections through said exchange; a trafficrecording ing contacts controlling predetermined operations of saidswitching circuits, each of said relays having an inductive controlcircuit adapted to deliver an induced voltage upon release of saidrelays, a plurality of gas discharge devices each being electricallyconnected to the inductive control circuit of a respective relay of saidplurality,

of an inductive kick, circuit each of said discharge devices beingoperative to be discharged solely by the induced voltage control relays.

'7. A trafiic recording system for automatic telephone exchangescomprising a plurality of gas discharge devices mounted within asubstantially light-proof housing, means controlled by the release ofrespective calling connections through said exchange for developing aninductive kick for operating said discharge devices, a light sensitivecell mounted within said lightproof housing being energized in responseto the operation of said discharge devices and a call registercontrolled by said light sensitive cells for recording the number ofcalls passing through said exchange.

8. A trairic recording system for automatic telephone exchangescornprising a plurality of gas discharge devices responsive to aninductive kick mounted within a light-proof housing, means controlled bythe release of respective calling connections through said exchange fordeveloping an inductive kick for operating said discharge devices, meansenergized in response to the operation of said discharge devices forrecording the number of calls passing through said exchange against atime base indication.

9. In an automatic telephone exchange having a plurality of individualrelay controlled connecting circuits therein each of said circuitsrecording system comprising, a plurality of gas discharge devices, eachof said gas discharge devices adapted to radiate connecting circuits.

10. A traiiic recording system for automatic telephone exchangescomprising a plurality of means mounted within said light-proof housingbeing operative to directly record the operation of said dischargedevices against a predetermined time base.

11. A traffic recording system as set forth in claim 10 wherein saidlight sensitive means comprises a multi-channeled film mounted withinsaid light-proof housing adjacent said discharge devices, said film pastsaid discharge devices at a of speed.

constant rate References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATESPATENTS Number Name Date 1,194,378 Goodrum Aug. 15, 1916 2,392,890Vincent et al. Jan. 15, 1946 2,399,682 Kucera May 7, 1946

